Atelier de l’artiste, puis par descendance

Collection particulière, 2013

Galerie Antoine Laurentin, Paris

Galerie Enora, Paris, mars 2016 

Eric Gillis Fine Art, Bruxelles 

Acquis auprès de cette dernière par l'actuel propriétaire le 10 mars 2017

Collection Louis Grandchamp des Raux

Morlaix, Musée de Morlaix, Perros-Guirec, Maison des Traouieros, Maurice Denis à Perros-Guirec, juillet-août 1985

Pont-Aven, Musée de Pont-Aven, Maurice Denis et la Bretagne, La Leçon de Pont-Aven, juin-octobre 2009, reproduit p.28

Granville, Musée d’art moderne Richard Anacréon, Maurice Denis au fil de l’eau, avril-septembre 2013, reproduit p. 46

Bruxelles, Eric Gillis Fine Arts, 1785-1919, Paintings, Drawings & Sculpture, octobre 2017, catalogue n°19, n° 7 p.70, reproduit en couleur p.71

Cette œuvre est référencée dans les archives du catalogue raisonné Maurice Denis de Mesdames Claire Denis et Fabienne Stahl sous le numéro d’indexation 894.1022.

In this large work on paper, Maurice Denis beautifully illustrates the lesson of Paul Gauguin to Paul Sérusier for the creation of Le Talisman (Paris, Musée d’Orsay). Denis himself related these words, emphasizing this synthetic and subjectiveapproach to colour: “How do you see these trees? They’re yellow. Well, use yellow; that shadow, which is rather blue, paint it with pure ultramarine; those red leaves? Use vermilion.” In this painting, Feu de Goémon Devant la Mer, the artist takes the ideas of Synthetism and applies them boldly, with flat areas of bright colour and a radical simplification of forms. In placing the horizon line high on the canvas he takes inspiration from the Japanese prints that so fascinated the Nabis. With the exception of this straight line, all the others arecurved. This study for a project, yet to be identified, is inspired by the Brittany coast, traditionally thought to be Pouldu. Maurice Denis was particularly attached to this spot in Brittany, close to Pont-Aven where he stayed during the summer of 1899 and where he painted Maternité au Pouldu (Musée de Pont-Aven) and the Baigneuses, Plage de Pouldu (Paris, Petit Palais) (ill. 1). The subject is the burning of seaweed on the shore, a practice that produces iodine, used at the time in agriculture, pharmaceuticals and photography. The stylized spirals of white smoke at the heart of the composition mirror the undulating lines of the dunes and echo those of the clouds. The four elements – earth, water, air and fire – are united by a harmonious colour palette blending blues and oranges painted in tempera. The decorative nature of the work is accentuated by the fact that the abstract patterns ofthe wallpaper design on the back show through very faintly. From the very beginning, the Nabis took an interest in wall decoration, demonstrating a keen interest in the decorative arts in this shared desire to do away with any hierarchy in any of the arts. With this principle in mind, Paul-Élie Ranson and Maurice Denis both worked at designing wallpaper. In 1893, the year before the execution of the present work, Denis made a series of panels in gouache intended for wallpaper, among them Les Bateaux Jaunes (ill. 3) and Les Bateaux Roses (ill. 2).

Fig. 1 : Maurice Denis, Baigneuses, plage du Pouldu, 1899, huile sur toile, Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-arts de la Ville de Paris

Fig. 2 : Maurice Denis, Les bateaux roses, 1893, gouache sur carton

Fig. 3 : Maurice Denis, Les bateaux jaunes, 1893, aquarelle, crayon et gouache sur papier, Collection particulière